Pita Limjaroenrat, the former leader of the Move Forward Party, won the most votes in Thailand’s 2023 general election but was blocked from becoming prime minister – and his party excluded from the governing coalition – over calls to reform Thailand’s strict lèse-majesté laws, which prohibit criticism of the royal family. Limjaroenrat tells FRANCE 24 his party merely wants to find a balance between respecting royalty and freedom of speech in Thailand, which has some of the strictest royal insult laws in the world.
